A short‐term plan for CAL

Abstract  The successful integration of computers into British schools provides one of the major educational challenges of the century. The plan for CAL outlined here is a ‘survival scheme’, concentrating on the progress needed if we are to remedy the current problems within the next 5 years. The objective is the introduction of ‘fourth generation’ hardware into an educational environment which has been fully prepared‐with a redesigned curriculum, high quantity and quality of curriculum‐related courseware, a well‐trained and enthusiastic teaching profession and a clear theoretical understanding of the issues underlying effective use of CAL. The short‐term strategy advocated involves; ‘host‐target’ software development; development of a CAL authoring system; provision of quality software via support for a limited number of ‘CAL demonstrator projects’; introduction of CAL systems for teacher training; and pure research aimed at better theoretical understanding of issues underlying CAL and the curriculum. Suggestions are made for implementation of many of the deails of the strategy.